Distractions
by obsessivereader95
Summary: Basically just a bunch of cliches melded into one plot. Chapter 11 addresses the cliche involving the random new "fear" ghost that puts the class through all their greatest fears. I may rewrite this, working Fright Knight into it because that's really his area, but this has been on my laptop for a very long time and needed to be added.
1. Prologue The Key

**IMPORTANT! Some things may change, but I'm thinking it'll be the same for the most part. Basically, "Distractions" is just a bunch of melded together cliché plots. (As many as could plausibly fit together, off the top of my head, and the ones I'm just interested in!) WARNING: I wouldn't suggest expecting the whole story to come out in this quality. It may be better, may get worse...**

**I don't really watch the show anymore *ducks tomatoes* but I'm really into the fics! S**o I've decided to get the ideas off my head! They're really getting bothersome when I'm trying to sleep. Of course, as soon as I start writing them, all the inspiration will leave, and I will be left with nothing but the first few chapters and some highly-agitated readers. Well, c'est la vie!** **

***Sigh* Do we have to go through this every time? *Lawyers smile evilly* "No." O.o I don't own Danny Phantom! *faces fall***

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not my sister! I'm sorry I'm not everything you ever wanted!"

Danny slammed the door full force, breathing heavily as he made his way down the street. He began the long walk to the outskirts of the city, yearning for the comfort and solitude of his cave. The burning self-loathing he'd created during his parents' conversation fueled the anger kindling inside him. But as he walked on, his angry expression turned to one of despondency.

_Mom_ _and_ _Dad_ _were_ _right_; _I'm_ _never_ _going_ _to_ _amount to anything_. His grades seemed to be lacking just to spite him. His dreams had all been dashed against the rocks three years ago. He reached an alleyway, transforming so that he could fly to his lair. When he finally reached it, he almost mechanically picked up his sketchbook.

He began to draw the scene of his parents' angry faces in one corner of the paper. Lancer's face came into view next, outlining yet another C- on the history test he had only been able to study about for five minutes. Seconds ticked by as he finished the simple drawings, adding color and life to them, but they only took up the smallest of corners on the pad. His pen seemed to form the next few pictures on its own. A mound of beaten ghosts came into existence under the foot of a white-haired boy, who held a thermos in his left hand, extending a smile to his two friends and sister. In the background was the swirling entrance to the ghost zone, the green light casting an eerie hue around the room. In his right hand, he held the sketchbook he was currently doodling in. His face was exhausted, experience etched into its eyes that no one his age should know exists yet.

To the other side of Phantom's solemn, smiling face was a collage of dreams. NASA rocket models were strewn across a messy room, cracked and dusty. A bed in the very center was the only thing cleared of the papers and clothes that littered the floor. It looked as though it hadn't been slept in for days. Its soft, dark purple comforter beckoned for the tired being on the mound to return to the warm folds.

Yet it was only a drawing, so, try as he might, he would not find the solace of those bed sheets anytime soon.

Danny's ghost sense went off, cutting through his concentration. He hardly lifted his head, though.

Ember appeared before him about five minutes later, fury blazing in her eyes. "Okay, what gives? I've been standing out in that park for hours, bewitching the minds of all the teens in this dump, and you couldn't even spare one plasma ray? Am I not worth your time or something, dipstick?"

Danny still didn't glance up from his sketchbook. The ghost peered over his shoulder to see Phantom on top of half the ghost zone. That was the focal point of the picture, though, so she turned her anger away. It was completely accurate, anyways. As she took in Phantom, Ember finally noticed the somber face and the sunken eyes, the details she had decided to overlook the past few years.

"Phantom…?" she said, a little uncertainly. He met her eyes, his cool, blue ones piercing her very essence. She suddenly flashed back to the sight of someone with eyes very much like his, only they were less… broken, more full of the innocence youth granted him. The Daniel Fenton she was looking at now was not the same Danny he had been during freshman year.

Suddenly, the deep, piercing despair that had filled them so much vanished to be replaced by an empty grin. "It's only been seven minutes, Ember. I was trying to give you a head start," he stated with practiced humor.

Ember wasn't so easily fooled. Biting back an annoyed groan, she began an unexpected therapy session she would never admit to, "What's up?"

He just kept a skeptical eye on her. Then, he asked the last question she'd been expecting, "Are ghosts really that blind?"

Her look of shock must have spurred him onward, "I mean, seriously? Would it kill- er- ruin your afterlife to have waited until after high school to completely screw up my future?"

Ember glanced down at the sketch again, mostly to avoid the teen's piercing gaze. "I hear your teenage years are filled with the most change. Maybe you were meant to get it all over with in one swing?" she half- jokingly replied.

He gave a derisive laugh, leaning against the wall of the cave. "The weirdest thing is that it seems as though you're all planning it. I can just imagine Spectra putting it all in a planner. 'I think I can pencil you in for tomorrow, say about three am? That ought to keep him miserable enough!' Ugh! It's absolutely sick how many nights I haven't slept a wink thanks to you guys." By now, his eyes had closed in a somewhat relaxed position, though Ember could still feel the tension rolling off of him.

She was about to make a crack at his impression of Spectra when she realized something. She voiced her opinions aloud, "No, Phantom, we don't plan who goes when. I don't really think any of us can help it, by now."

"Help what?" he asked, still keeping a derisive tone, "Pushing me off the deep end?"

Ember chuckled now. "And you called us the blind ones. Haven't you realized it by now? No one's sticking to the old schemes, anymore. One by one, you became every ghost's new obsession. You draw us like flies to honey. By now, I don't think any of us could stop pestering you if we tried. Heck, even the benevolent ghosts are obsessed with you. Those Yeti things made a shrine! Now that's dedication."

This news, however, seemed to depress him. "Great," he muttered sarcastically, "Now I really am the reason ghosts attack Amity daily."

"That would have been true either way, dipstick. This joint is the gateway between two worlds."

"Two worlds that I don't belong in," he whispered, staring at his feet.

"That's not it, either. This is the door, baby pop, and it's locked on both sides. Ghosts aren't just obsessed in world domination. We're obsessed in owning the key. Danny, you're that key." Danny gave her a blank look, so she hastily started over, "Let's break this down for you. All cities are humans and ghosts, avoiding each other in all respects other than matters for their gain. Amity Park is the halfa among them, the one that isn't entirely human nor ghost. You belong here, Phantom, just as much as this guitar belongs in my hands."

Danny glanced up at her, processing the words slowly. "Thanks, Ember. I really needed that."

Ember wrinkled her nose in mock disgust. "Don't go all mushy on me now, Phantom. This is a one-time gig." As she flew away, she smiled softly to herself. She remembered being alive as a teenager. It was hard enough without the ghosts he had to deal with. As she mused over this, she never noticed the dark shadow engulfing the entrance to Phantom's lair.

The next morning, Daniel Fenton disappeared, all evidence pointing to the possibility of him running away.

**Anybody else agree that J.K. Rowling was just looking to write angst when she wrote the fifth Harry Potter? That's how I felt when I wrote this chapter. I've just been reading too many happy stories, lately. (Does that sound as wrong to you as it does to me?) **

**OMC! ALL THE SYMBOLISM! I wish my English teachers could see me now! Hope you liked it!**


	2. Busted

**Okay, this is the first chapter. I'm writing Chapter Five at the moment. Please tell me what you think of it. This is basically my way of conquering writer's block, so please forgive any late updates!**

"Distractions: Busted"

Danny sat as still as he could, contemplating the possibilities lain out before him. On the one hand, he couldn't afford to miss out on this. His future was at stake, as was his mental health. On the other hand, though, everyone's future could possibly be at stake if he didn't give his own up.

He sighed as he pushed his English test away from him in disgust. _Looks_ _like another failed semester_, he thought miserably. _I'm_ _never gonna get into college_. He raised his hand to ask to go to the bathroom.

Lancer didn't even bother to look up from his papers to see the raven-haired boy. "If you must Mr. Fenton, but I'm warning you, you'll never get anywhere in life if you continue slacking."

Danny just nodded glumly and walked out of the room. He didn't even bother grabbing the bathroom pass. All the hall monitors knew him by now. He slipped into the janitor's closet when the coast was clear. "Going ghost," he whispered tiredly. In a flash, two white rings appeared around his waist, separating to cover his whole body in their cold light. His skin was now giving off a glowing aura and his piercing, ice blue eyes became glowing, neon green. His favored white, short sleeve t-shirt, the dull, light blue jacket he'd taken to wearing, and his jeans all disappeared under the transforming lights to be replaced by a skin-tight black jumpsuit. The red spot on his shirt became a white "DP" logo. His now-gloved hands ran through his shocking white hair.

He phased out of the closet and started patrolling the halls. He didn't have to look far and soon regretted leaving his future behind on the off-white desk in English.

"Beware, for I am the dreaded Box Ghost! Fear all and tremble before the awesome might of my-" he paused to look at the contents of the boxes he had floating around him, "-paper and art supplies!"

"Can it, delivery boy," Danny said, holding back a yawn.

"I cannot, how you say, 'can it' for I am the Box Ghost! Master of all things cardboard! I cannot control the wimpy cylindrical things you call 'cans,'" the Box Ghost replied. "Now face the wrath of my-"

He was cut off by an ecto-blast to the jaw. "I'm not in the mood for this," Danny muttered, sucking the annoying entity into his thermos. He looked at his watch and sighed, "If I leave now, I can make it back to class for the last five minutes." His ghost sense went off again. "Or not." A sudden ecto-blast acquainted itself with his back.

"Hello, ghost child," a familiar voice echoed through the hall.

"Don't you ever get tired of this, Skulker?" Danny asked in an annoyed tone. "You kept me up till four last night. Four am! Don't you guys ever sleep?"

Skulker just smirked, "Of course, whelp, but not nearly as much as you." He punctuated his statement by punching the halfa in the gut. Danny was sent flying into the nearest wall, which just so happened to be his English class. The wall crumbled on impact and the ghost boy was thrown into the seat he'd vacated only ten minutes earlier. He clutched his head, shaking off the dizziness.

The class was dumbstruck at first, but soon Skulker came through the hole in the wall, "Your pelt will rest at the foot of my bed! I will not rest until your body becomes my most prized trophy!"

Screams echoed throughout the building now, nearly drowning out Phantom's reply, "Apparently, neither will I," he answered, his voice layered by exhaustion. He stood and fired an ice ray at his opponent. Skulker's arm froze and Danny punched it, causing the appendage to fall to metal pieces and ricochet off the surrounding seats. Luckily, by this time the alarm had gone off, so the classroom was empty.

"Ouch!" Or so he thought…

"Sam! What are you still doing in here? I've got the thermos. You don't need to worry-" Skulker took advantage of his momentary lapse in concentration to kick him into the wall on the other side of the room. Danny only grunted and lifted himself off the desk he'd landed on.

"Dude, I've got the thermos right… here…" Tucker, who'd also stayed behind to help out as well, trailed off as Skulker set his sights on him.

"Tucker, get out of the way!" Danny yelled. He immediately swooped in to block the blast Skulker had fired at him. He erected an ecto-shield, but the blast unexpected went through it. Danny blocked it from hitting Tucker, gaining a mild burn on his abdomen. He furiously shot another ice ray at the offending robot ghost, effectively freezing it from head to toe. He then broke off his head and pulled the tiny green glob out of it. Tucker wordlessly sucked the ghost into the thermos.

Sam came up behind them with a small first-aid kit held out as a sort of peace offering. Danny looked down at his boots.

"How bad this time, Danny?" Sam asked, as if she were asking about the weather.

"Just a few broken ribs," he answered, grinning. This was such a normal occurrence by now that it hardly bothered him. Well, except for the pain of it. There was no getting used to that. "The burn should be gone within the hour and my ribs will be fine by tomorrow."

"Skipping gym again?" Tucker asked with a jokingly envious look.

Danny laughed, only to wince a bit, "Nah, I've already got C's in English, Algebra, and Civics. I might as well pass one or two classes. I actually have an A- in Biology. Mr. Wexler doesn't really like giving out homework, so Jazz's tutoring actually helps there. I think I'd have at least a B- in the rest of my classes if they actually gave a hoot about what's going on in our lives," Danny replied, rolling his green eyes.

Sam snorted. "The day Lancer cares about us is the day no ghosts touch this town."

"If only, if only," Tucker said wistfully. "Now, hurry up, guys! Lunch is in two minutes, and I hear they're having hot dogs today!"

Sam scowled in disgust, "It's also the day Tucker becomes a vegetarian. Do you even know what's in hot dogs? Plus, the school hot dogs are blue. _Blue_, Tucker, and that doesn't even bother you?"

Danny laughed, successfully hiding his wince this time as Sam bandaged his chest. "I'm sure I don't want to know, Sam. I'm already missing sleep. I don't need to start missing meals," he teased. The rings appeared, and he changed back into Fenton.

"You could always join me," she said in a funny impression of Vlad.

"Never gonna happen!" Tucker exclaimed. "We need someone in the middle! Unless, of course, you want to join the side of meat, Danny, then you can do whatever you want."

Danny chuckled, "No thanks. I think I'll remain the lone omnivore." Just then, Lancer came around the corner, his face livid.

"Manson! Foley! Fenton?" he seemed concerned about the last boy, who realized too late that he still had his shirt off.

"I-it's not what it looks like?" he offered hesitantly, pulling his shirt back over his head and trying to cover the scars along his arms with the blue jacket.

_I'm so busted._

**Te he! Cliffy! You've got to love them, huh? *Dodges more tomatoes*Calm down! The next chapter's longer and already finished. Please review. Reviews=water, and the headaches increase the longer I go without them.**


	3. A Teacher's Will

**You know, I was thinking about all the times authors said they didn't die. What would happen if they had died? Would someone they know tell their readers? Would the readers just keep reviewing and private messaging a dead person? Is it possible that it's happened to some writers I've been upset with for quitting on their stories? 0.o That's just depressing…**

**You know what else I realized? I left those poor people who read "The Key" with two cliffies. One of them won't even be introduced till a long time from now! Sorry…?**

**.motnahP ynnaD nwo t'nod I** **(Congrats are given to those who can read that the first time through! My hope is that it would hold up in court…)**

"Distractions: Teacher's Will"

Danny didn't let the fear show in his face, opting to pull the poker face he kept in reserve for battles.

Lancer's poker face wasn't nearly as unresponsive. Disbelief lined his tone as he responded, "Well, it looks to me as if you were attacked on your way to the restroom, and Ms. Manson and Mr. Foley were worried. But, _Secret Garden_, why wouldn't you immediately head to the nurse's station?"

"We were headed there next," Sam cut in coolly.

"We had to treat the injuries we could with this," Tucker continued, pulling out the first-aid kit Sam had been using.

Lancer raised an eyebrow. Not believing for a second that it was either Daniel's or Tucker's, he asked, "Why did you have a first-aid kit in the first place, Ms. Manson?"

"My parents are a little overbearing…" she mumbled, glaring pointedly at Tucker.

"My parents taught me how to use first-aid in case ghosts ever attacked a long time ago. I just told Sam what to do," Danny half-lied smoothly. He let a wince show through the poker face to make it more believable. "Guess I can't really say they were just paranoid anymore."

Lancer gave them a suspicious glare, but he didn't have any proof to counter it, so he let it slide, "Well, head on down to the nurse."

"I don't think that's necessary," Tucker said quickly.

"What Tucker meant to say was that I think I've got everything covered," Danny spoke without even sparing an angry glance at Tucker.

"Well, we should check to be sure."

"No!" Tucker exclaimed. Danny nearly slapped him.

"I _know_ I've got everything covered Mr. Lancer. Trust me," the half-ghost assured.

Lancer's dubious look made them all nervous, but he sighed, "All right, but you're going to have to call your parents. You need to check out of school."

"I can't," Danny nearly whimpered, "If I fail gym on top of everything else, I don't think I'll even have a chance to get to the tenth grade."

"Well, you can't very well go through the rest of the school day in this state, much less gym class!" Lancer exclaimed.

"Yes. Yes, I can," the raven-haired boy disagreed fervently. "It's just a minor burn. I'll be fine. I've gotten worse in… my parents' lab accidents. I'll be fine."

"Lab accidents?" Lancer asked uncertainly, surprise etched onto his wrinkled face.

"My parents hunt ghosts with their own weapons," Danny answered, surprised Lancer didn't know that.

"Oh, yes, I knew that, but you've been in their lab during accidents?"

Danny nervously rubbed the back of his neck. This conversation wasn't getting anywhere, and he was going to be late for lunch. "Yeah, it's not like they're easy to avoid," he answered nervously. "Look, I have to go to lunch. Sorry I missed the English test…"

"I'll reschedule it," the teacher said dismissively.

"Really?" Danny asked, excitement shining in his eyes.

Lancer didn't let on that Danny poker face had been shed. He hadn't seen any real emotion on the boy's face in a long time, unless you counted exhaustion and disappointment. "Of course," he said indignantly, "There was a ghost attack."

"Never stopped you before," Tucker muttered under his breath. Lancer ignored him.

"Well, if you're sure you're alright then get out of my classroom!" Lancer said, seating himself in his chair. "I've got papers to grade and another class lesson to prepare."

"Yes sir. Thank you, sir." Danny answered, following his silent friends out of the classroom.

"What an odd child," Lancer said to himself, bemused by the look of relief and excitement that had come to his face when he found out he'd be given more time for the test. He smiled thoughtfully, "Maybe Phantom should come crashing through walls more often."

**THIS IS A LINE BREAK! EVERYONE TAKE CAUTION! KIRBY BITES! ( O. O) (that's its name on Super Smash Bros anyway- which I do not own!)**

"Yes!" Danny exclaimed as he followed his friends into the lunchroom. He might've been jumping for joy if it wasn't for his broken ribs. "Maybe I should crash through walls more often!"

Sam just shook her head exasperatedly. "If I didn't know what you were talking about, Danny, I'd think you were insane."

"Who cares? I've got an English test to make up!" He got a few blank stares from the people who heard him, but if he noticed, he didn't show it. "This is absolutely amazing!"

Tucker walked up to Sam and whispered, "I think he's finally lost it."

"I heard that," Danny said, not letting the smile slip from his face or even turning around from his spot in line.

"How? I could hardly hear it myself," Sam questioned.

"Sensitive hearing," he whispered conspiratorially.

Sam rolled her eyes, "Just what you need; another new power."

Danny grinned mischievously, "Who said it was new?"

She just rolled her eyes again as she received a greasy school-lunch salad. She glared at it suspiciously. "Even I'm not sure what this is," she said scooping a glop of something that could have passed for dressing in the ghost zone alone. "For all I know, it is animal fat watered down to look mildly appetizing to Cujo."

Danny laughed as the goop fell from her spoon and splattered all over her salad. "I don't even think Cujo would eat that."

"That's why meat is always better!" Tucker said, plopping his plate down next to Danny's.

Sam glared, "If Danny didn't need that to keep himself from collapsing next period, I'd scar you for life."

"Sam, no need for threats," Danny said cheerfully.

"Nothing's gonna ruin your mood, is it?" Tucker asked, smiling.

"Nope! Don't jinx it either!"

"I think you just did."

"Tucker!" Sam and Danny both exclaimed at the same time.

Danny's ghost sense went off, and he groaned, "Great! Just great! Cover me, please." Danny ducked under the table, his friends covering the flash of light. He phased through, whispered that he'd be back, and flew off to continue patrolling the halls.

**KIRBY MADE A FRIEND! EXTREME CAUTION ADVISED TO ALL WHO ARE NEAR THIS LINE BREAK! IT BITES AS WELL! ( O. O) (O. O )**

After lunch, Danny didn't show up until five minutes after gym started.

"Fenton, go get dressed! Then, I want you to give me five laps around the basketball court for being tardy," Tetslaff said as he walked through the door.

"Hello to you, too," Danny mumbled, taking as little time as possible to get to the locker room. He didn't want Sam or Tucker to notice his limp. He'd figured it should be gone by the end of the hour, but those laps were going to be some form of torture.

He quickly scanned the length of the locker room to be sure there were no dawdlers. No one was there so he changed quickly. He had taken to wearing sweatpants to gym, something Dash had immediately picked up on, teasing him about following in his Goth friend's footsteps or something else that didn't even make sense. For some reason, Tetslaff couldn't find anything in the rulebook that prevented his wearing them, so he got to keep them. He also wore his light blue jacket over his shirt, claiming to be cold, even in the summer. His temperature acclaimed to that one.

He pulled the end of his pant leg up to reveal the nasty-looking cut on his ankle. He wrapped it carefully, making it tight enough so that his limp wouldn't be noticeable by the rest of the class at least. Sam and Tucker, of course, would pick it out almost immediately. Tetslaff might notice, but that was only if she was studying him as he ran. He wasn't all that worried.

**OH! HE'S DOING THE KIRBY DANCE! GO LINE BREAK! ( O. O) ^ ( O. O) ^ (O. O ) v ( O. O) v**

Lancer watched as Daniel hobbled into the gym five minutes late. He hadn't realized that the boy was late to other classes, other than his. That ruled out the thought that it was just because Fenton didn't like him. Then again, he probably didn't like the coach too much, either. The hobbling was strange, but not unexpected, considering he was a very clumsy kid. When Daniel came back into the gym, he seemed to be controlling the limp, as though it was incriminating evidence against him. Lancer figured it was to keep his meager amount of pride from going down the drain.

The limp became slightly more pronounced as the laps wore on, but the boy kept at it, refusing to give in and tell his coach that he'd stubbed his toe or whatever he had done to it. Lancer was tempted himself to inform Ms. Tetslaff of the defect, but he wanted to see how Mr. Fenton would handle it. The rest of the children were finishing up their pull-ups when Daniel joined them. This was where he drew the line. Running a lap with a stubbed toe wasn't too bad, but doing pull-ups with a burn across the chest? This was just preposterous!

As he watched, though, Daniel tried to talk to his coach. He didn't even flinch as she yelled at him loud enough for all the others to hear, "You can't do pull-ups, huh? Well, maybe you want a pacifier and blanket as well, Mr. Fenton! Slackers don't pass my class, kid, now get on those bars!"

Lancer's shocked expression wasn't mirrored by anyone. The football players snickered, and the cheerleaders giggled, but nobody else seemed to care. Daniel only shrugged and walked over to the bars. He hid the pain well, Lancer could see, but only from the careless students looking on.

The pain was still very visible in his eyes, but, oddly enough, it didn't seem to bug him as much as the running had.

"I want to see twenty more of those, Fenton!" Tetslaff said. _Is this how all teachers sound?_ Lancer wondered (A/N: A resounding, "No, just a lot of them."). How many times had he, himself, blown off a child's excuse as merely an effort to slack? Then again, it was true in most cases. He would help in this one, though. It would not be good for a healing body to strain so much, even if the pull-ups looked effortless to young Daniel.

He made his way over to the coach. She was watching Fenton like a hawk. "Yes, Mr. Lancer?" she said distractedly.

"I'm here to excuse Mr. Fenton from doing his exercises today," he said simply.

Tetslaff laughed, but it soon died down. "Wait, you were serious?"

"I am serious. He has been injured in the crossfire of a ghost fight," he said with authority.

Tetslaff's eyes widened, "Why didn't he say anything before?"

"I was watching as he asked you to be excused. You yelled in his face and gave him more work."

"Well, I… Well, I thought he was lying…" she said helplessly, "Fenton! Get your butt over here!"

"Yes, Coach?" he asked nervously as he limped over.

"Why didn't you say anything about being hurt?" Tetslaff asked.

"Who said I was hurt?" Both teachers caught the fleeting glimpse of nervousness before he pulled a mask of puzzlement over it.

Tetslaff pointed at Lancer. Danny glared at the floor. "Show me," Tetslaff ordered.

"No," Danny answered simply. Only Tetslaff seemed shocked by this reaction.

"You didn't go to the nurse like I told you, did you, Mr. Fenton?" Lancer asked.

"I told you! Sam and Tucker took care of it. I'm fine!" Danny insisted.

"I told you to show me," Tetslaff growled, reentering the conversation.

Danny looked her dead in the eye. "No offense, Coach, but I'd rather do a twenty more pull-ups than take off the bandages." At least he confessed outright to having been hurt.

"Show me the bandages, then," Tetslaff compromised exasperatedly.

"Fine!" Danny shouted, getting fed up. He carefully pulled his shirt up to show the bandage that covered the burn, trying not to let them see the scars running along the rest of his body.

A collective gasp rose up from the students. Those who hadn't looked when Danny had shouted immediately turned their attention to the bandaged body of the school's biggest loser. He hastily pulled his shirt back down.

"There, happy now? Can I leave?" he said, still sounding annoyed and now sporting a red face.

As he walked back, though, Lancer stopped him, unable to hold back his curiosity, "Daniel, did you stub your toe? I couldn't help but notice you're limping."

Danny nearly strangled himself. He spun around in anxiety, "Limping? I-I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Daniel," Lancer said warningly.

"Fine, yeah, I stubbed my toe," he answered in irritation, "Can I leave, _now_?" With that, he walked away without a backwards glance.

**I know I got a little carried away with the Kirby Line Breaks… Sorry? I'm not even sure the site will allow it to show up…**

**Sorry if I spelled Tetslaff wrong… She wasn't in the list of characters… **

**Final comment: Did anyone else notice that "Denial" and "Daniel" are the same if you switch the "e" and the "a"? I found that rather interesting ;)**


	4. Positive

**I was so tempted to post this earlier… As it is, this is a day early ;) Thank you for so many reviews! That's the biggest response I've ever gotten to the first few chapters! THIRTEEN WHOLE REVIEWS! *Tear* I'm so happy!**

**I'm currently sitting on a comfy little worn-out recliner in my room. If I owned Danny Phantom, I think I'd be sitting in a mansion library on a bigger laptop dipping those cookie straw things in hot chocolate. (Mm, yum ) You can tell the difference.**

"Distractions:_** Positive!**_ _Positive._ Positive…"

In hindsight, yelling at a teacher isn't the smartest way to go. Well, there's no sense in trying to change the past. A picture of a smirking time master entered his mind, causing Danny to roll his eyes.

People in the hallways were whispering around him. Even Dash was leaving him alone. It has all happened before, though, so Danny wasn't too worried. He was convinced they'd forget it by the next week, maybe even the next day. At least, he hoped they would. He knew for a fact that Dash would, and that Lancer had told everyone it was a crossfire accident. The rumors weren't too bad… yet.

"_Lancer doesn't seem all too into the lesson today, does he?_" Tucker passed a note to him, giving the teacher worried glances. Danny didn't take his head off the desk. It was true, Lancer seemed to be fretting over something on his desk, but Danny didn't really care.

_I deal with the _para_normal problems; someone else can handle the _ab_normal ones_. This thought made him feel guilty, though, so he looked up at Lancer and tried to pretend to be paying attention. In reality, the boy's ankle was starting to swell for some reason, and his ribs were still on fire from the pull-ups. He was grudgingly thankful to Lancer for keeping him off that cursed bar for the rest of the week, even if he'd have to wear an unnecessary bandage, too. He was still trying to figure out why Lancer hadn't been giving him detentions lately.

Sudden realization struck in the form of Sam snatching the note and answering, "**Danny, what if he's getting suspicious?**"

Tucker laughed humorlessly at the sight of the words. "_Wouldn't that be just our luck? One of the many clueless people in Amity Park uncovers the mystery that is Danny Fenton, and it just so happens to be his English teacher._" He rolled his eyes, struggling to scribble the rest of the note before the bell rang. "_Come on, Sam. There's no need to get all worked up about nothing!_"

"I don't know, Tuck," Danny wrote, eyeing the man skeptically. "He has been acting weird ever since that incident with Skulker. I mean, he's only managed to give me _one_ detention this week, and that was because Principal Ishyama was just coming around the corner."

Tucker gave a low whistle, just as the bell decided to catch them, "_Whoa, dude, this _is_ serious._"

"**Let's give it a few days,**" Sam added, hastily scrambling to pack her notebook into her already overflowing backpack. "**He might just be sympathizing for Danny's recent 'crossfire' incident.**"

Both boys glanced at it and nodded as they left Lancer's room, none of them remembering to pick up the note they left on Sam's desk.

**This next bit was inspired by something that happened in school. I can't remember what, but I wrote it down in French. It was originally "senior class."**

"Bow down, sophomore class! Danny Fenton is determined to have a good day!" Sam said sarcastically as the trio made their way to school the next morning. Danny had gotten _sleep_ last night, considering his parents had completely flipped out about his "incident." He had been forcefully detained to his room. Granted, it had been about six hours (his ghost sense gone off while his dad was sleeping), but that was still a big feat for the boy who usually got two. **(A/N Sorry this isn't the parent-flip-out part some of** **you wanted… That's a cliché for later.)**

"More like duck down," Tucker stage-whispered. Danny glared at him. "What? I'm telling you, Danny, you can't have a good day just for the attitude. Face it, dude, the universe is determined to keep you from enjoying a whole day. Having the _attitude_ is just like trying to spite it. This cannot end well," he finished mock-sagely.

Sam smacked his arm playfully, "Don't ruin it, Tucker."

Danny chuckled, "It works for other people, so why not me?" At this, Tucker's eyebrows lifted, a retort dancing on the edge of his tongue. He swallowed it down in the face of the double glares from his best friends. "You never know," Danny continued, "It could've been that my attitude's been wrong all along."

Tucker snorted, but refrained from speaking as Sam raised a fist once more.

"So," Sam started, "Now that it's settled the universe has decided to cut Danny some slack, what is the great halfa going to do with it?"

This seemed to throw the halfa a bit. "I… don't know… What do normal kids do on good days?"

Tucker downright laughed so hard, tears ran from his eyes as he answered, "Dude, you can delude yourself into thinking today's going to be good, but you can't possibly expect it to be 'normal person' material."

"Wow," Sam said scathingly, "Tuck knows what 'delude' means."

Tucker jerked a thumb at Danny, "Danny's the only clueless one in that department. I had it all crammed torturously into my head. All the video games in the world will not be able to rid me of that curse," he finished mournfully.

"I still have no clue what I'm going to do today," Danny cut in, not necessarily caring about the newest slight to his intelligence.

Tucker's eyes suddenly shone mischievously, "You know what we should do today?"

Danny rolled his eyes, "Yes, Tuck, I have it all planned out. The past five times I've asked you were just for dramatic effect."

"Five?" Sam asked, smirking. Danny just sighed exasperatedly.

"We should have…" Tucker began, trailing off dramatically.

"Oh, spit it out already, Tuck!" Danny said, glaring at his best friend.

"…a prank war."

**I had to rewrite this chapter at least three times. If you don't like it, deal. XP**

**Nice cliffy, huh? Not as awful as the first two, I hope. Please review for the slowly-developing-mental-issues-writer (try saying that five times fast) I'm the type of author who will take every miniscule detail into account, then forget the big ones…**

**CHALLENGE! (I really can't find hardly ANY of these and it's getting on my nerves.) Danny somehow loses his ability to go ghost (ie-parental experimentation, freak occurrence, yada yada yada) so he resorts to rescuing people in his human form. Rules: No adult themes. Keep language down to a K-rating. Character death allowed, but strongly discouraged. Secrets may be discovered, but that's not really good considering he can't go ghost. He MUST save people as a human. Preferably not in a ghost fight. Think along the lines of average heroes. You may maim him, just nothing too bloody/gory.**

**CHALLENGE #2! Either I'm really bad with research, or people avoid the classics way too much (I'm thinking it's the former…) Danny Phantom is gone (runaway, quit, NOT HURT/ DEAD… maybe hurt but not hospital worthily, taking break, unable to go ghost, etc) Amity Park is falling to the ghosts. The Fentons and Valerie (and the GIW, if you want) realize the importance of this ghost they hunted. The question is did they realize it in time? This is a cliché, so it ****may**** (who am I kidding?) **_**will**_** end up in this story. Same rules apply. Well, except for the saving people as human and onward.**

**If you accept, review this chapter telling me which one (if not both) you're doing.**

**If you accept a challenge and post the story before I'm done with this one, you and your story get a mention! Come on, people! I'm so desperate, I'm offering free advertisement! Normally you ask for a cyber cookie or two for this!**


	5. Kidding

**I think I'm getting weirder in the head everyday…**

"**And I was like, 'Whoa, friendly alert!'" –commercial**

**I'm sorry about the lame prank. I honestly wanted to make it an okay kind of lame. I'm just excited that… Never mind. I'm just sure you guys would do a better job with the prank than I did. Even though the pranks are not done yet… *evil smirk***

**Sam watched as the storm passed by her window, controlled in every essence by the entity floating closely behind it. "Danny!" she screams out the window, "When did you get your weather powers back?" **

**He looks at her with his haunted, glowing eyes brimming with confusion. "When the author got mad that she didn't own me…"**

"Distractions: You've Gotta Be Kidding"

Tucker stealthily made his way to Dash's locker, ducking behind passing students when the blond jock himself appeared in front of it.

"Pharaoh to CL1, I'm in position," he whispered into his PDA.

Danny refrained from hitting him, so as not to draw attention to them, "I noticed, Tuck, I'm standing right next to you." He waved a hand in front of the boy's face. "What the heck does CL1 stand for?"

Tucker just snickered and gave his friend a frown. "This is my dare. I'll use code names if I want to."

"What does CL1 stand for?" Sam had joined the group, popping up from somewhere in the crowd.

"You'll find out soon enough. Don't worry, Sam. You're CL2," Tucker said, chuckling at his own inside joke.

Sam doubted that, but she kept her lips shut on the matter. "What are we doing first?"

Tucker ripped out a piece of paper, proudly presenting it to the clueless pair. "I made a list," he proclaimed pompously.

"You're going to fail first period," Danny said sagely. Tucker waved a hand dismissively.

"After the Crammer, I don't know if-"

"Would you quit griping about that? Why are we sneaking up to Dash's locker?" Danny cut in, annoyed.

Tucker's grin turned downright evil. "We're going to pick the lock!"

Danny and Sam glanced at each other, obviously not getting the joke.

"You'll see," Tucker said, trying his hardest not to laugh.

They crept slowly up to the jock's locker. Tucker expertly twirled the dial, having memorized Dash's combination from the last time they had to break Danny out with too many witnesses around. The lock fell open.

Then, he started to walk away.

Danny and Sam shared another confused look and quickly followed. "Um, Tucker? Dude, that was pretty weak," Danny commented.

Tucker shushed him with a finger to his lips and pointed to the blond now making his way to the locker.

Dash spun the lock, glancing over his shoulder. He tugged, but the lock wouldn't come down any farther. He shrugged and spun the dial again. Again, the lock refused to click for him. Furiously, he began to spin the dial a third time. When the lock still didn't budge, he tugged in earnest, his arms bulging with the force he was exerting on his muscles. He puffed as he let go again, trying the combination one last time. Finally, he slammed the locker with his fist. There was a resounding, metallic clang followed by a loud, girlish yelp. If the sound of a locker being pounded on wasn't enough to make the rest of the student body look up, the sound of Dash's scream clearly made up for it.

"Dash," Kwan said, concerned, "Is everything alright?"

Dash just pointed in rage at the dented locker. Paulina walked up.

"Gosh, Dash, it's so not cool for you to have a freaky meltdown over a locker." There was annoyance in her voice, but her eyes suddenly became panicked, "Didn't I put my powder in there?"

She twirled the combination and tried opening it. A furious look took her eyes as she experienced the same thing as Dash. Casper's "King and Queen" were both freaking out about an already unlocked locker.

Kwan reached over to the lock and turned it to the side, easily opening the offending piece of metal just as the tardy bell rang. Paulina's screams could be heard all throughout the campus as water balloons were dumped onto the trio of A-listers. "My powder!"

Casper's "Losers" were laughing their heads off in second period.

**6 N ! 0 6 ****I****! S, M 0 I-I '0 7 7 3 I-I (couldn't figure out how to make the upside down "?" sorry if this** **doesn't show up…)**

"That was still pretty weak, Tuck," Sam reiterated as the trio made their way to third period.

Tucker shrugged, "Who cares? I thought it was hilarious, and that's all that matters."

"Give me that list," Danny said, snatching the paper from his best friend's hand before he could complain. His eyes got wider and wider with disbelief as they searched the paper. "Tuck, these are all lame. Only you would laugh at half of these!"

Sam read over Danny's shoulder, "'Slip bacon into Sam's salad?' You do realize that now I'm going to have to kill you." Her eyes darkened threateningly. Tucker gulped.

"You wouldn't do that, Sam," he said anxiously, "I'm an animal, too!"

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Danny replied as both he and Sam laughed at their friend's expense.

Danny's ghost sense went off. "Oh, come on!" he raised his eyes, figuratively addressing fate, "Today was supposed to be 'cut Danny some slack' day!" He ignored the few weird looks he got from people passing by.

"Hey, Fentina!" came the sudden, angry voice of a damp bully named Dash from across the hall, but Danny had already shoved his way to the bathroom. He once again went ghost, allowing a slight shiver as the icy cold tendrils of light surrounded his form. He heard the screams already sounding from the throats of the students outside. He turned invisible as a group of teenagers burst into the room.

He phased through the wall in search of his latest annoyance.

**I can't believe I'm about to do this. Reader: Beware, we are about to see the third person: limited view of an** **idiot!**

Dash wasn't used to being ignored. At school, he was the boss. All students bowed to his awesome might, except for that freaky Fen-toenail and his creepy friends. It had taken Dash all of freshman year to beat the kid into submission, and then there were days like these. He would've thought Fentina had learned his lesson by now, but no, the teen just ignored his call, as though he didn't fear the bully at all.

_No, that isn't it. Fen-turd didn't ignore my call. He was just running away. Yeah, he was just scared! Ha,_ _that ought to teach you a lesson, Fentina!_

That was when an abrupt, subtle chill rent the air. He turned around to meet the glowing red eyes of a faceless ghost. Its form suddenly shifted out of the visual spectrum, leaving behind a light shadow as the being's body grotesquely morphed at the will of its master. When it came back into view, Dash was facing an exact replica of himself, save for the red eyes.

He screamed. Of all the people in the hallway, he was the first to make it to the safe haven that was the bathroom. Well, except for Fenton, but he seemed to have left during the confrontation.

The bathroom, though, had an eerie chill to it as well, giving Dash goose bumps. It disappeared quickly, though, so Dash pushed it from his mind.

Shouts began to fill the bathroom as everyone in the front suddenly huddled around the door. A hushed whisper made its way to Dash, "Danny Phantom."

**Weak cliffy, I'm afraid. Sorry people, but I'm about to finish getting ready for company… I have to clean the living room before they get here.**


	6. Broken Spirit

**I don't usually like Dani fics because they usually have Dani becoming more powerful than/ just as powerful as Danny (which I don't find plausible). I hope you enjoy this part of my version, though ;)**

**Fenton's got enough problems in his life without having to deal with the torture I'd put him through. I sure hope Butch Hartman gets some inspiration to continue, though!**

Danny phased invisibly through the bathroom wall, narrowly missing a sighting from Dash.

The hallways were eerily empty. The shrill, piercing sounds of the ghost alarm echoed intermittently throughout the school. He found the ghost just outside the bathroom door, which he could now see little freshman poking their heads out of. They'd most likely been forced to wait their turn to get in the bathroom, and they were most likely about to get pushed out of the way for the upperclassmen jocks to see the action. Danny grinned as he recognized Amorpho's signature hat tip… even if there was no hat to actually tip. For once in his two years of hunting, a friendly, known face was coming to him. He frowned at the face he was currently expressing, though. Dash's blond hair clashed with the red eyes boring into the hybrid.

"Something wrong, Amorpho?" Danny asked hesitantly.

The ghost switched to his faceless form, eyeing Danny in pity, though the hybrid couldn't tell from the emotionless eyes. "It is your… friend, Danielle," he reported quietly, though it still carried across the empty, silent halls.

Phantom's face grew pale. "What happened?" he asked as his eyes hardened in fierce determination and the desire to protect the ones he loved.

"She has contracted a rare condition among ghosts, though it seems to be very common to you humans."

"What is it, Amorpho?" Danny asked in a steely, impatient voice.

"It is called depression."

Danny nearly smacked his forehead. "You had me worried she was going to die! Gosh, Amorpho, you didn't have to sound like she had some rare ghost disease or something."

"Among ghosts, Daniel, depression is a very deadly disease. It causes the bearer to wish they didn't exist, which leads to an early fading process. I do not know how it will affect Danielle."

Danny sobered instantly, "I'll go get Jazz. School's out because of the 'attack' either way."

**At this point, I can't believe I'm entering this shallow… **_**kid's**_** mind again…**

Dash made it through the gaggle of freshman easy enough. All he had to do was shout "Move!" and the entire crowd parted for him, the jocks, and the upperclassmen.

They watched the confrontation between the ghosts with rapt attention, hoping to get a piece of the action. Instead, Phantom and the faceless ghost talked. Phantom all of a sudden looked really worried, which didn't bode well for the humans below. He left with the ghost after they seemed to finish the conversation.

Dash was the first to leave the bathroom, as he was the only one brave enough. That is, he was the first to push a geek out in front of him. When they all realized the coast was clear, the bathrooms emptied.

Manson, the Goth freak **(A/N: Realize these are Dash's thoughts, not mine)**, immediately screamed, "No school!" She ran through the front doors of the school, dragging a reluctant Tucker.

"I left my PDA!"

"**What he, what he don't know is how hard it is to make it look so easy!" –Natasha Bedingfield ("Easy")**

Danny cautiously made his way through the frozen wasteland that Frostbite was keeping Dani captive on. Danny had been highly touched to discover that his closest allies in the Ghost Zone had been caring for his cousin. The cousin in question, however, wasn't too happy to see him.

"I bet you brought your shrink of a sister, too, didn't you? I don't need fixing! I'm perfectly fine!" she shouted as she glowered at the fifteen-year-old.

He took a half-step back, but then a sudden epiphany hit him. Dani was, in essence, based off of what Vlad had known about Danny at the time. However he would react to a situation like this, she would, too. He walked forward, keeping careful to stay out of the twelve-year-old's range of fire. Not that she would ever be able to find it in her hero-complex to hurt him… _too badly_.

"Of course you don't need fixing," Danny said complacently, pulling a chair around so that he could cross his arms over the backrest. He waved Jazz away, realizing that it would only upset the depressed clone further. "I'm just here for you to vent to." Dani, who had been watching his movements calculatingly, glared openly at the boy she hadn't seen since he'd stabilized her.

"You don't know anything about me, Danny. You have no idea what's been going on in my life, and I-"

"I want to know you, Dani," he said softly, his eyes sincere and pleading. "We haven't seen each other in a little less than a year. Can't I want to get to know the only other person like me in the world?"

Dani opened her mouth… then closed it again with a heavy sigh, "You're right," she said, desperately fighting to keep the tears from her eyes. She chuckled softly as she replied, "Guess Vlad was never actually like you, huh?"

"Vlad was never like _us_, Dani," he said firmly, keeping his voice gentle. "We never were, and we never will be, the same person. We just like the same things."

She gave a derisive laugh, "Of course, _you'd_ say that. I'm completely like you, Danny. I'm your clone, and that's all I'll ever be; the carbon copy of my older cousin."

"You're not, you know." She looked up in surprise as Jazz glided into the room. Danny, knowing he wouldn't be able to explain the scientific bit of this discussion, had given her the okay to join. "From what Danny told me, Vlad never got a hold of Danny's DNA. You were based off of Danny's personality and abilities, but you only got what Vlad knew. You are most definitely your own person. You just have an unusual family." She smiled lightly and gave Frostbite a sideways glance.

Instead of the relief Danny had expected, Dani's shoulders sagged. "So I'll never get my ghostly wail?"

Danny couldn't help it. He laughed. "Dani, that wail is completely awful. Do you know how scary it is to think that one nightmare could be the destruction of your house and all the family within it? Have you ever thought that maybe ripping all that power from your vocal chords might hurt? Plus, I can't even use it all that often. Damage control, you know?"

Dani whistled. "Okay maybe not that one, but what about ice powers?"

"I'm not sure if Vlad knew about my ice powers yet, but I'm willing to bet you've got an ice core. I'm sure Frostbite will be happy to teach you." An audible groan came from the hallway, causing the teens to laugh. "Plus, you'll probably get to duplicate before I do. Now that's something I wouldn't mind."

The preteen grinned, but it didn't last long. "Danny," she said, letting out a small puff of air, "There's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?"

"I'm not aging."

**Another weak cliffy. Guess I'm just not good at those *shrugs shoulders***

**Interesting Fact: "Amorpho" comes from the word "amorphous," meaning "without shape." I learned that from spell check. **

**I've got a new idea for a story (stupid plot bunnies that I really love) It's a really twisted crossover between "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid," and DP. DO NOT LET ME START IT UNTIL ALL MY STORIES ARE COMPLETE! **

**Please review! This is where I start to need suggestions! I'm thinking about starting that thing where authors demand a certain amount of reviews for a post, but since this is leisure writing, I won't. I'll just tell you my goals: five reviews for each chapter (excluding the prologue) I was a little disappointed with the 'just under twenty' because it hurt the goal. Anyways… Have a wonderful day! (I'm hoping that works better for you than it does me… ;))**


	7. No Faults

**Apologies, my dear readers, are in order for the lateness. They shouldn't get here until next week, though, so… (If you didn't get that, I meant I'll be late next week, too.) Exam week *shudders* I hope you understand. I'll be out of town next week, and I have no way of knowing if Wi-Fi will be available.**

**You wanna know something so obvious it hurts? I don't own Danny Phantom! (I know, ouch…)**

William Lancer had never been the most caring of teachers. That much was clear after only five minutes of watching his hall monitoring skills. At least, it was clear to all those who, like most of the population, only gave a cursory glance before passing judgment. Lancer's favorite saying was, "Never judge a book by its cover." He prided himself in being an excellent judge of character.

So, it was at this fateful moment, two days after Mr. Fenton's "cross-fire" incident, that he was mentally berating himself. He couldn't be that wrong about Daniel, the Class A slacker and troublemaker.

Could he?

As he walked through the double doors of Casper High School at twelve o'clock sharp, he was too absorbed in the small sheet of paper clutched in his sweaty palm to notice that, not only were the students gone, but the teachers as well. He was utterly alone.

He sat calmly at his desk, still giving the paper his nearly undivided attention. The note wasn't easily legible, nor was it any less cryptic than one would expect from the trio of secret-keepers. He looked up and opened his mouth to begin his apology for being late, giving brief pause to his recent obsession.

His voice froze in his throat. He didn't know if it was due more to the shock or to anger. His footsteps echoed eerily in the still silence as he pounded his way back through the door and down the hall. Had there been anyone in the halls, the sound would have caused an immediate reaction of straightened backs, tucked-in shirts, and hushed conversations, often punctuated by giggles and synchronized pointing.

The empty halls, though, were just as mocking, even if their whispers were quieter. The sudden sound of a child's laughter caused him to about face immediately, ready to grill the teen for answers. A small puff of icy, thin mist was the only indication that someone might have possibly been there recently. He was making his way slowly now, keeping his back to the wall and watching the strange mist for any sudden movements.

"Boo!" the voice of a small boy came from seemingly everywhere and nowhere at once. Lancer jumped three feet in the air, coming back down inches from his previous location and… right onto Janitor Reynolds. Both men screamed in oddly high-and-low-pitched tones at the surprising collision.

Lancer came out halfway on top of the janitor, who was muttering under his breath. Lancer looked amazed at the string of Swahili. Shaking his head and standing, he held out a hand to help the other man up. Reynolds accepted it gratefully, immediately cutting of his speech in favor of English.

"Got you this time, didn' 'e, Lancer?" he said with a wink, chuckling a bit.

"What are you talking about?" William wasn't one to be confused often, but there was no shame in asking.

"That there's Youngblood. He likes a joke, tha' one does," he said, brushing the dirt off his uniform.

"Who's Youngblood?" Lancer asked, a little more agitated than before.

"He's a ghost," Reynolds answered simply before turning back to his cart and beginning the short trek back to his closet. He carried on conversationally, "Haven' seen Phantom 'round since the ghost came tis mornin'. Wonder where he's run off to?"

Lancer was still standing in the same spot, blinking at the now bright green mist in both terror and awe. It was laughing.

**School is school, but weekends are heaven.**

"Come on, Dani," Danny gently coaxed his look-alike away from the window. "Aging is not all that great. I mean, look at Jazz."

"Hey!"

Danny stuck his tongue out at her. Dani giggled as Jazz formed a sloppy punch to his shoulder. He pouted. "Sheesh, Jazz. See what I mean, Dani? She can't even take a joke!"

"I know it's not all that bad, but it's just… I'm not like the other ghosts here, and a lot of them hate you too much to even come near me. The ones that don't hate you either hate me because I'm Vlad's little experiment gone wrong or they think I'm just some obsessed fangirl. Vlad's little experiment, I can handle, but trying to be your clone because of obsession? That just bites."

Danny thought about it for a little while. He had no clue what to say. Apparently, Jazz wasn't any better off. He suddenly chuckled at a little thought, "Guess that just runs in my genes, eh? I've never been the one to make a bunch of friends easily. There's always one reason or another for them to hate me. You know how I got around that one?"

Dani cocked her head to the side.

"I found the two people who would take what they hated about me and turn it into something they put their trust in. You know? Make it a kind of controlled variable of your life. Sam will always be a vegetarian. While it's not something I agree with, I've made it something constant in _my_ life. That's the kind of friend you need to make. Someone who'll take your stubborn attitude as something they'll depend on."

Dani had no idea how that made it easier to picture living her miserable half-life as a twelve-year-old, but it did. A nameless, shapeless person crept into her thoughts. Someone who really would accept her as Danielle, not Daniel. She gave a small smile. "Thanks, Danny. That helped. Can I come back to Amity with you for a while, though? No offense, Frostbite, but I'd like to spend some time with my cousin. I'll come back in a few days."

"No offense taken, Danielle," he replied with a chilled, but warm, smile.

**I've been toying with the idea of a janitor for a while. Sorry about my first attempt at dialect. *Rubs neck nervously* Please don't be mad at the OC… It's not his fault I added him… I blame the bunnies! **

**Yes, I do realize that the cliffy is in the middle of the story. What's your point?**


	8. Happenings

**Well, um, I did warn about this. I really didn't have internet for a long while after I made it home. I've** **got a new router, so I should be good for the next day and a half. I tried to write the next chapter much earlier, but I ended up with some REALLY random Harry Potter crossover. That won't pop up** **anytime soon… hopefully…**

**No way in Jack Sparrow's wacked-up little mind do those little rock-crabs say I own Danny Phantom.**

Lancer carefully edged himself along the wall farthest from the chuckling mass of fog. He didn't care that it sounded like an obnoxious little boy, not even at middle school level. He just cared that it was entirely too invisible for his liking. It was too visible at the same time, which actually did make sense to his bemused mind. What wouldn't he give for life to make sense again?

_It's been normal before?_ He rolled his eyes at the thought. Nothing could ever be normal in Amity, especially considering the Fenton's had been among the oldest known families to have lived there. Lancer vaguely wondered what the world would have been like in a Fenton less world. _The class grade point average would go up…_ he thought wistfully, leading to the image of a bright classroom filled with sleeping children… _or not. _

All in all, it was poorly executed escape attempt. Honestly, he'd seen better from Fenton's detention escapades. _It's really not fair of me to judge myself on those. The boy's a genius when he wants to be,_ he thought, remembering the several elaborate plans he had foiled. In all honesty, he wouldn't have found them out if Danny hadn't deliberately slipped up. They were a source of amusement in the drab detention center, but Lancer didn't need to know that.

He stopped cold as a chilling breeze rushed through him. Apparently, the boy wasn't alone in his attempts to put the teacher in an uncomfortable position. The sudden loss of his pants was testament to that. He gaped at his obnoxiously bright smiley-faced boxers for a half-minute before straightening up. There was no one but the mysterious fog-ghost to witness his embarrassment. Well, the new set of snickers wasn't a good sign to that conclusion. He glared at his khaki pants, floating just below the ceiling, not a good sign at all.

He was about to start a teacher-worthy rant about the immaturity the spirits were showing when someone rounded the corner on the other side of the hallway. Lancer paled.

It was Principal Ishyama.

**Mwahahahahaha! I bet you all thought I was going to leave you there when you saw the line break. **

Dani couldn't control the bubble of hysteria bursting forth from her mouth as she carried the teacher's pants to the ceiling. The arrival of the man's boss gave her the idea to turn them invisible. She quickly signaled to the strange, foggy ghost to follow suit and held her breath to keep from laughing again at the stuttered excuses. The woman had covered her eyes at the sight, announced that if he was really sick enough to forget his clothing, he should stay home for the day, and promptly left a fumbling mess of a teacher, still shielding her eyes.

Dani flew down to his height. "Well, now you know how that other kid felt."

"Mi-Mister Fenton?" Lancer's bewildered look spoke volumes. "What does his losing his pants last year have to do with this?"

"You don't think he honestly meant to let his pants fall down, did you?" she asked, still giggling slightly as his head swiveled in search of her form.

"That- That was ghosts? Why would they mess with him?"

"Why wouldn't a ghost want to mess with the son of two ghost hunters?" Not lying. Avoid the lies with more questions.

"Why didn't he tell someone?"

"Who would believe him?" Sad but true. "Besides, his parents are the type to shoot now, ask never. He's a good kid. He has a few friends he wouldn't want to have mauled by accident. Plus, he's never been the type to want his enemies harmed too badly. Just enough so that they'll quit bugging him for a while."

"He has ghost friends? Isn't that dangerous?" Lancer's mind looked to be working furiously for the moment.

"Hey, we're not all bad. Danny's a decent guy."

"What's your connection to him?" the man asked curiously, peering at the spot where his pants had reappeared and grabbing them quickly.

Her cheerful, teasing voice deserted her, giving way to a soft, almost wistful tone, "He gave me a family when mine betrayed me. He's the closest thing I'll ever have to a brother."

Lancer gave the empty space a skeptical look, "This is still Daniel Fenton we're talking about, right? And what in the name of _Keeper of the Doves_ gave you the right to take my pants?"

If Lancer had seen the look on the girl's face, he would have darted down the hall in ten seconds flat, pants or no. As it was, the voice was maliciously happy enough to make him freeze in his redressing. "Danny and his friends were having a prank war that was interrupted by my… appearance. I'm in, and this is my initiation offering. Beware, Lancer, for this is a taste of what tomorrow will bring." With that parting shot, there was a flash of a green vortex that seemed to take the invisible entity with it.

"Hey, wait!" It was the nearly forgotten voice of the fog. "I want in, too!" it said, following invisibly as the green spiral closed suddenly behind it.

Lancer was left gaping, half-dressed, at the spot where it had disappeared.

An unfamiliar tune came in a whistle as the janitor moved his mop across the floor.

"You in for an interestin' day tomorra' man." He said off-handedly before carrying on his daily chores to the soft whistle of an old folk song.

**Grr… I'm good at digging holes for myself… **

**HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Perfect day for an update, if I do say so myself.**

**Review?**


	9. Youth Wasted on the Young

**Okay, so this is actually a day later than the extremely late deadline I had planned, but we'll live because I had the excuse of being out of town… again. Anyway, I am now officially a year and a day old on this site! I have been writing for a year and three days now. Exciting, no?**

**OH MY CHEESE! Did you know there's supposedly a despair dot com? I didn't look it up so I'm not really sure if it's real, but I read it somewhere.**

**Disclaimer: A dream is a wish your heart makes. *Sigh* Not even in my dreams….**

Danny, Dani, and Jazz had safely reached home about two hours after the initial ghost "attack" in the school. Usually, they could count on their parents' ability to spend at least four hours scouring the "infected" area before arriving.

As Danny's luck would have it, that wasn't the case this time.

As soon as the three teens set foot on the mercifully solid, concrete floor, a small shiver of cold ran through Dani's spine. She abruptly left the visible spectrum and leapt lithely into the air, barely avoiding being caught by the two humans that came rushing in seconds too late.

Danny started trying to explain why they were in the lab, but their parents blew right past them, keeping their noses firmly glued to the devices in their hands. Danny rolled his eyes and motioned for Jazz to follow him up the stairs.

They hadn't even made it to the first stair when Maddie yelled, "Ghost!" Her ghost-seeking device was held up, pointing, not at Danny, but at Dani.

"Come out of hiding, you suffering spook!" Jack yelled maliciously. The glint in his eye suggested he knew exactly what he was going to do with this manifestation of post-human consciousness, and it was not going to be pretty.

Dani, having inherited at least part of Vlad's intelligence, immediately zoomed through the wall, following the underground to the school.

Maddie's immediate response took Danny off guard.

She glared at the device in her hands then put it on the ground. A soft, blue glow occupied the space surrounding it. The light grew brighter as Danny backed away from it. Jazz followed, only slightly slower. She knew there wasn't much she had to worry about, but she _had_ just been in the Ghost Zone.

As the light reached a small sample of ectoplasm hanging precariously on the edge of a lab table, it became a deep crimson, flashing green sporadically. Suddenly, the all-encompassing beam concentrated into a single laser that blasted the ectoplasm to smithereens, container and all.

Danny gulped.

"I'm, uh, gonna go… get some lunch, now…" he said hesitantly.

"Right behind you, little brother," Jazz muttered, visibly disturbed by the device still on the floor.

**-_- annoying little cliffies, no? -_- annoying little line breaks even more so? -_-**

Kyshor Reynolds was just an average Swahili-speaking, ecto-friendly janitor. At least, that's what he kept telling everyone, not that many people asked. He liked to believe that he could handle the goings-on of Amity even better than the people born there. The thing he didn't understand, though, was why Mr. Lancer, the second-weirdest of all teachers in Kyshor's eyes (topped only by that strange gym coach), was sitting on the floor in his classroom, puzzling over a piece of paper.

_Maybe_ _it's_ _a_ _teacher_ _thing?_ His thoughts turned to other strange positions he'd seen from teachers of the past. Sitting on the floor definitely wasn't high on the "creepy" list, but it still reminded him oddly of how a child would sit to color. He gently knocked on the door. Weird guy or no, he had to empty the garbage. He suddenly shuddered at the thought of having to clear out the chemistry lab again. He had a nasty run-in with some sharp glass at the beginning of the last year. The cheap school refused to pay for recycling, not that many teens (or teachers, for that matter) would actually use it, so the teacher hadn't really known that sharp glass in a flimsy plastic bag would break, nor that the poor old janitor would be on the receiving end.

Lancer's eyes shot up, a panicked look quickly replaced with relief. Reynolds shrugged it off.

"Comin' to pick up trash," he said. "You got any?"

The man nodded tersely and gestured to the trashcan next to his desk. Reynolds sighed and forced his tired old legs forward. He dragged the large trash bin with him, squeaking slowly towards his destination.

When his task was complete, Reynolds noticed something was out of place. Where was the chair?

**~-~ well, this chap is partly just a filler… ~-~**

Dani was staring at a small boy in a large, red chair. Currently, said boy was twirling endlessly, prattling on and on about how this prank gave him the right to join the war effort. For all Dani cared, he could do anything he wanted. The only problem she had was that he seemed convinced it made him her teammate.

"Have you ever done anything like this before?" she asked. "There are no teams!"

"Oh," he said, unaffected. "So I can still be part of the prank war, right?"

She rolled her eyes. "For the _last_ _time_, _**yes**_! If you don't do anything that threatens someone, I can't think of anything Danny would be able to say about it. Besides, I'm sure you'd break him down with your begging if he didn't let you. You're kind of annoying, you know that?"

The boy grinned. "You only think I'm kinda annoying? Most people threaten me when they say something about how annoying I am."

Dani giggled. "I can see that. Anyway, there are no rules for a prank war, so I guess we can team up for a few of them…" Her casual suggestion was instantly regretted as the boy's face lit up ecstatically.

"Great! That's awesome! Man, I can't wait to start."

Dani rolled her eyes and glared in mock disgust at the young boy. "Well, Youngblood, this is going to be a _long_ war."

**To The Ghost Writer's Apprentice, Phantom-Stelo, son of wind, He(ck)breaker (sorry, I consider that a cuss), Underworld Angel, DBack47, aslan333, Skye of the Night, Codiak, and all anonymous reviewers: Thank you so much for reviewing! They made me smile.**

**Frizzle (since I couldn't PM), I completely agree. The first few were intended to be a Lancer-revelation fic, but I got carried away… I know that pranks aren't very practical in his life, but… well, he's a teenager in dire need of stress relief. I never said it would be easy for him. (if you wanted to know, I'm smiling maliciously now) I don't like Dani that much either, but she's a frequent cliché and I wanted to write something a little… different from what others seem to think.**


	10. Done

**Okay, I'm getting a bit bored with where this story's going, so I hope you're ready for all my… strange** **little quirks…**

**Do I have to say this every single time? This is probably somewhere around the thirtieth time I've typed something like this: **I don't own! Got it? *Eye twitch*

Dani and Youngblood slowly crept toward the prone, sleeping figure of Danny Fenton. It had been a week since the start of the "one-day" prank war, and the two youngest were the reigning champions, aside from Danny. No one could seem to catch him off-guard.

Until now, Dani thought as she held the classic whipped cream spray can up to his hand. The evil grins that adorned the children's eyes would have sent almost anyone packing.

The boy sleeping idly on the couch, though, just shifted slightly. Dani thought she noticed a slight flutter of eyes as Danny turned. Somehow, the small smirk she'd caught sight of briefly scared her more than the thought that Danny's parents could catch them at any moment. She silently thanked Tucker for disabling the ghost detecting weaponry. Her sharp sight caught a sudden, subtle movement from Danny's hand.

"Abort!" she whispered fearfully, but it was too late.

With a maniacal chuckle, Danny flung his covers away to reveal the arsenal of… silly string.

Both ghosts backed away, forgetting their abilities to turn intangible as they were shot with the colorful, sticky substance. Danny returned fire with a giggle. As the white foam filled the air, Youngblood shot feathers out of his hand.

They were all laughing outright until Danny suddenly stopped. "Dani, turn human. Youngblood, hide!"

Youngblood, now familiar with this drill and the consequences if he disobeyed, shot through the ceiling while white light engulfed the ghost girl.

"Danny!" Jazz exclaimed, out of breath as she bolted down the stairs ahead of her parents. "They've got that new device with them!"

Danny's eyes widened as he whispered, "Youngblood. Dani, you need to find him."

The black-haired girl nodded and flew through the ceiling after another flash of white light.

"Danny, you have to go, too," Jazz said solemnly.

"How are you going to explain this? No, I have to stay. We just had a silly string/ whipped cream/ pillow fight… There's nothing wrong with that," he said. "I hope…"

"It'll take them about five minutes to get down here if Dad falls again."

Just then, Dani reappeared, carrying Sam and Tucker. "Thought you could use the help," she said as she set them down. "You're coming with us."

"Where will you tell them I've been?" Danny said, eyeing his best friends, who looked a little disgruntled at being dragged out of bed at two in the morning.

"You went for a walk, remember? Sam and I were going to play a prank on Jazz, but you didn't want to be part of it," Tucker said with a sleepy smile.

"When did I say I was coming back?" Danny asked.

"Whenever you knew the house was back asleep," Sam grunted.

"I'll be walking around for twenty minutes," Danny said decisively. "I was supposed to patrol tonight anyway."

"You patrolled last night," Youngblood said matter-of-factly as the trio left the house. "And the night before, and the night before that. You know, in the whole week I've been with you guys, you've always gone on patrol."

Danny suddenly shivered in the warm night air. "And I've run into a ghost every time," he said, bitterly looking up to see who had decided to bother him this time. The stronger his sense got, the better he could tell where the ghosts were, so he knew it wasn't Dani or Youngblood causing it. A sudden pink blast sent Dani crashing to the ground with a shout of surprise. Danny immediately retaliated with a green blast of his own in the general direction the offender had shot from, but another shot from behind knocked him to the ground next to his clone.

"Tsk, tsk, Daniel," Vlad Plasmius said with a cocky smile as he stepped out of the shadows and absorbed his duplicate. "What would you have done had that been a certain minion of mine? Ms. Grey may be easily manipulated, but she has a sharp attitude about her. I doubt she'd miss green fire coming from your hands."

"What do you want this time, Plasmius?" Danny asked, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

"Well, I was on an evening stroll when I just happened upon your neighborhood. I had planned on the two of you being asleep, but taking my daughter back right under your nose serves a greater pleasure to me."

"I'm not your daughter!" Dani shouted before blasting the annoying man. Vlad dodged elegantly and laughed lightly before bringing a charged hand up to shoot at his creation.

The whining of a charging weapon interrupted the fight as Vlad was caught up in a beam of blue.

Danny and Dani exchanged shocked looks until they heard an excited, "Whoop!" from the form of a small, glowing boy.

"I've always wanted to do that," Youngblood said, grinning from ear to ear.

…**So… bored… I'm… in… one… of… my… "…" … moods…**

After the fight with Vlad, Dani decided it was time for her to head back to the Far Frozen. Youngblood decided to join her, saying, "It just wouldn't be the same." Any sentimentality in the statement was ruined by the fact that he was eyeing Danny's thermos warily.

Danny hugged his "cousin," then nodded to Frostbite to take Danielle back to their home.

"Don't worry, Dani," he said, shaking the thermos containing Vlad, "He won't be getting out of this thing until I know you're safely there."

"I don't see why you don't just keep him in there longer," Dani grumbled.

"That's because you've never been in there long enough," Youngblood muttered.

Danny looked at him with a grimace, "I feel your pain, dude. Too bad you guys keep coming out. No attacks would equal no thermos."

"Nah," Youngblood replied as the three ghosts stepped into the portal. "You're too much fun to mess with!"

And with that, the trio disappeared, ending the prank war once and for all… or not…

**Sorry if Dani's bit was too short, but no one was reviewing to tell me whether they cared or not. Plus, I** **was getting immensely bored. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting complaints about Vlad's extra short piece,** **but I was never really good at casting the fruitloop.**

**WARNING: Dani may appear again because I have not completed all my freakish ideas. I may or may not have to bring her out again.**

**I personally found this chapter too abrupt, but quite satisfying when it comes to moving the plot along.** **Again I say: **_**I was so bored!**_


	11. No

**Some not-so-humble apologies are in order. It has been a long time… sorry? Just a bunch of personal** **crap and blah, blah, blah that I'm sure you've read before on numerous occasions. Plus, my laptop broke** **(like literally snapped, not just overheated) so I've lost every scrap of my work. Stupid footrest…**

**So, I did warn you that I have some strange quirks about me. This story will be very interesting to me,** **but how much you enjoy it depends on how well you deal with my abnormalities. Good luck.**

**Have you ever wondered what it would be like to own Danny Phantom? Well, keep wondering.**

Lancer groaned as he entered his classroom. How was he supposed to keep teaching with all these pranks messing with his lessons? He had no clue how, but one of the pranksters had managed to attach all of the desks to the ceiling without getting caught. With another groan of frustration, he began to pull out the ladder that had been concealed in the closet after the last prank involving meat dangling just above a certain Gothic vegetarian's desk. Lancer was sure Mr. Foley had paid dearly for that one despite the school's inability to act due to lack of evidence.

The pranks had been very distracting to both the students and the teachers. Lancer, having been informed by an invisible entity early on that the secret-keeping trio was behind it, did nothing but sigh when the pranks got too far out of hand. What was he supposed to do? Tell Ishyama that three ordinary children had the ability to cause all of this havoc? He was fairly certain the ghosts were doing most of it, anyway, and that wasn't anything new.

Besides that, the trio seemed to be enjoying themselves. It must have been something about blowing off all that steam in an annoying, nearly innocuous way.

That didn't make it any more enjoyable.

He was willing to overlook it, though and not just because of the firm lecture he'd been given by the floating girl. It provided an excellent distraction for young Daniel and his hawkeyed friends.

Over the past week or so, watching the raven-haired teen covertly had been almost laughably easy. The results of his espionage, on the other hand, were no laughing matter. He had to stay his tongue in the hallways as the small boy was shoved roughly into lockers. Several times, he had to prevent himself from marching straight into the hallways with pen drawn and his trusty detention slips at hand.

He had discovered the living horror that was Daniel Fenton's life at school, but he had yet to find the courage (or really, sense of moral indecency) that would allow him to actually stalk the boy outside of Casper's walls. His threatened job had also prevented his following the boy out of the classroom. He had decided through an epiphany early that morning that he would remedy this by simply not allowing the boy to leave the classroom.

What could possibly go wrong?

…**Oh snap…**

Danny had a sense of foreboding following him around all day. No matter how many times he told it to back off, it just wouldn't stop flicking him in the ear.

Oh, wait. That was Sam.

"What?" he whispered, annoyed and cranky from staying up all night.

"Whoa, okay. No need to snap. How much sleep did you get last night?"

"Told you positive attitudes don't work," Tucker said smugly.

Danny yawned, topping it with a scowl, and answered, "That was weeks ago, Tuck. Get over it already." He shivered suddenly as cold air ripped through his lungs, exiting through his lips in a small puff of slightly visible air. He groaned and cast an anxious glance through Lancer's classroom window. The foreboding feeling had increased tenfold. Sighing he raised his hand.

Lancer didn't even have to look at the class to know who it was. Without glancing up to meet the boy's gaze head-on, he answered with his own deep sense of trepidation.

"No."

"Excuse me, Mr. Lancer?" asked a thin girl from the front of the class.

He said it again, louder this time, feeling the anxiety creep an inch up his chest for every word he uttered, "No, Mr. Fenton. You may not be excused. You should have thought to use the restroom in your own time."

_This is ridiculous!_ Lancer thought, _Why am I nearly having a panic attack for telling one kid not to leave the classroom?_

_This is ridiculous!_ Danny thought, _What am I supposed to do now? Maybe… maybe it was just the Box Ghost. Or Vlad. Vlad wouldn't risk his secret by actually barging into the school, would he? Skulker would. It was probably just the Box–_

His thoughts were suddenly cut short by a loud crash in the next room over.

…_Guess not…_

**Mwahaha! And so the weirdness begins! I know it's short, but I don't want to get all wrapped up in the storyline only to cut it off halfway. **


	12. What You Fear

**So, I've been reading **_**The Last Guardian**_**, and I read one of the guards' names: Kolin Ozkopy. Get it? Colonoscopy? I was laughing for like a minute straight, especially because the guy is in charge of tubes that go to the center of the Earth or something I don't feel like explaining. It was funny.**

_**Anyway**_**, now it's time for the ultimate clichés, the ones you've all been waiting for (well, at least I have…), the** **inspiration for this entire melting pot of stories, the pieces des resistances: …**

**What? Did you actually expect me to **_**tell**_** you? That would spoil the story! Now read!**

… **Yeah, I know... **_**I get it already**_**! I don't own DP **

The crash turned into what sounded like a full-on riot. A crescendo of terrified screams took residence in the once silent air and glass could be heard shattering as a crowd of students made a break for it outside the English classroom's window. Danny spent the next five seconds wishing it was just a classroom revolt. Oddly enough, Lancer was hoping for the same.

"Where is he?!"

This was just not Danny's day.

The voice was unfamiliar to Danny and his friends, but one timid boy in the back of the classroom was trying his hardest to seem like he was just as confused as the rest.

In reality, the boy was terrified. The voice emanating from the next room was _very_ familiar. He still heard it in his nightmares every night. So, due to the rising terror in the poor student's gut, he was the first to scream and head for the nearest exit, which (as he would kick himself later for not noticing) was the adjoining door to the classroom containing the horrifyingly familiar ghost.

The specter saw this as an opportunity to continue its search without the inane use of intangibility.

"_You_," it said upon spotting Danny in his seat, "I have come to challenge you for the rights of this domain. By the time I'm through with you, you and your pathetic band of insignificant mortals will all plead for my mercy. Some of you may even be reduced to nothing but blubbering squabble underfoot. You will have no choice but to surrender your position as protector either by default or your own choosing. After all, you don't want your entire precious town destroyed, do you?"

Danny slid down in his seat. _What is so special about Amity anyway?_

"And I will do it by forcing you all into your own fears!" Her piercing red eyes landed on the boy just in front of her with his hand glued to the door, looking like he was about to pee his pants. "One." She paused to look at Dash, "by." Her gaze shifted to Lancer, "one." Her malicious smile came to rest on the halfa as she cackled and a plume of green smoke filled the air.

**What? You didn't think Danny was the only one affected by ghosts in the entire ghost-infested town, did** **you?**

**P.S. I've had this written and on my laptop for a very, **_**very**_** long time. It's not my best work, but it'll do to get me to the clichés. Hope you didn't give up on me!**


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